5,000 Writing Prompts
Page 6
One of them has to borrow clothes from the other.
They share a meaningful moment in the midst of chaos.
He’s escorting her on a journey to meet or reunite with the man she’s supposed to marry.
One of them discovers a terrible secret about the other’s spouse or partner.
One of them has foreknowledge of the other’s future.
They’ve been together forever, but now she has amnesia.
One of them gives the other a homemade gift.
He comes home from a trip and brings her a unique souvenir.
She believes he’s acting this way because he’s under the influence of a love potion or spell. This isn’t the case.
He’s a different race or different religion than she is, and her family or friends disapprove.
He wants to be with her, but her ex is trying hard to get her back.
They used to be a couple, and their paths cross again when one of them is assigned to interview the other for a news story.
She discovers his secret interest or hobby.
They make fun of each other, but others can tell they really like each other.
Neither of them can muster up the courage to confess their feelings to the other. They both talk about it to the same mutual friend.
She gets him to try, for the first time, something she loves.
One of them teaches the other how to do something.
They narrowly escape getting in trouble after participating in shenanigans.
Which one of them inherited the estate? The lawyer’s trying to figure it out.
The police suspect her, but he’s sure she didn’t do it.
He forgoes his chance to escape a horrible situation so he can stay close to the man he loves.
She has mixed feelings about hiring her ex, but no one will do a better job.
He’s kidnapped her because he desperately needs her help to save someone else.
She’s recruiting him for a job that he can hardly believe exists.
Her residency, new job, or start-up business means she doesn’t have a spare minute for romance…but she’s tempted by him, anyway.
He improves himself or his life in order to win back the one who left him…and then he falls for someone else.
She never wanted to be involved in her family’s shady business. He wants to bring them to justice…but he’s attracted to her.
They’re on a spaceship.
She learns that he’s dating her to spite his family or get back at someone.
They are either watching a parade or participating in one.
She gets to go back in time and try again with the one she loves.
150 Young Adult Prompts
The majority of prompts in this book can be used in writing a young adult story, and most of the prompts on this list could be used for novels with adult protagonists.
A boy pursues his list of wildly ambitious New Year’s resolutions, with hilarious and touching results.
A girl on the swim team transforms into a part-time mermaid.
A group of “outsiders” becomes a clique that eventually excludes others.
A girl’s favorite author plagiarizes her fanfiction.
A girl who believed her friend died finds out she’s very much alive.
Siblings hide the fact of their mother’s death to avoid being put into foster care.
A teenager becomes a murder witness.
A teenager’s best friend goes missing—and is widely believed to be the murderer of a family member.
A rule-following, straight-A student is believed guilty of a crime.
Two teens begin to write a fantasy novel together and then cross over into the world they’ve created.
In a dystopian future, college admissions boards have access to video footage of students’ entire lives.
A girl always hangs out at a particular little nook at the library. Then the same boy starts taking the space every day.
A boy learns something terrible about his parents.
In a modern-day Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, three girls ditch class for a day filled with adventures.
A girl who loves cosplay begins taking on the personality of whatever character she’s dressed up as.
A girl in her teens is recruited to be a spy.
In a retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac, a boy helps his friend win a girl over through romantic and flirty texts and DMs.
A teen begins spending time in an abandoned house…and learns it has secrets.
A college student has a series of interviews for internships.
A college student desperate for tuition money secretly works at two different full-time summer internships at once, two city blocks away from one another.
A teenager survives a cruise ship sinking.
Anonymous notes in her locker lead her into a mystery.
Two teens from different social groups strike up a clandestine romance.
An adopted girl finds out she’s one of four quadruplets and finds her other sisters.
A depressed girl shares tips about happiness and positivity on an anonymous social media account.
A teen’s private diary is shared without his consent on social media, and it goes viral.
A college student struggles with a shopping addiction, maxing out one credit card.
A teen’s life changes over the course of one summer as she works at a beachside café.
A high school student spreads a false rumor about herself to increase her social standing.
A boy pretends he can foretell the future…and discovers he actually can.
A student council election takes several unforeseen turns.
A teen forms a unique connection with an animal.
A boy’s mother becomes involved with a cult.
A girl escapes a fundamentalist cult that’s living off the grid.
In a world where all creative work is illegal unless commissioned by the government, teens meet to write and share poetry in secret.
A high school coach or teacher convinces his favorite students to cheat.
When a nerdy girl transfers to a new school, she completely changes her image.
The captain of the high school debate team does his best arguing outside of tournaments—and it gets him in trouble.
A teen makes a friend with someone who may or may not be an actual angel.
A girl tries to keep up with her schoolwork while adjusting to her newly discovered responsibilities as Queen of the Fairies.
A boy growing up in rough circumstances falls in love with cooking and dreams of becoming a chef.
A teen gives excellent advice in an anonymous advice column in the school newspaper, but is completely unable to follow the advice herself.
Two boys on rival basketball teams develop romantic feelings for one another.
A girl takes boxing lessons and gets the confidence to stand up for herself verbally as well.
Four high school girls form a music group and strive for success.
A quiet, studious boy has a secret rebellious life at night.
Two girls carry out an elaborate act of revenge against two other girls.
In order to avoid his abusive father, a boy finds ways to avoid spending time at his own house.
A teenager is pressured to shoot a buck on his first deer hunt with an older relative, but he can’t bring himself to do it.
A girl struggles with the decision to tell authorities about what the star quarterback did.
A teen gains the ability to take the form of any other person she chooses.
Teens form friendships and romantic connections during rehearsals for a theater production directed by a tyrannica
l teacher.
A band of bohemian, artistic vampires recruits a newcomer.
With a phony resume, a teen passes as an adult and lands a corporate job.
A teen competes to become a national rodeo champion.
After planet Earth is destroyed, teen girls on a space colony feel pressured to marry and have children to propagate the human race.
A teen’s suspicions about a teacher lead him to conduct a private investigation.
A boy’s mother marries a very rich man, and the boy adjusts to a wealthy neighborhood and a private high school.
A girl tries to fit in when she transfers from a tony private school to a public one.
A girl’s decision to post one Instagram photo a day for a year leads her on new adventures and misadventures as she tries to find interesting pictures.
A boy with a history of bad behavior dates a minister’s daughter.
Two girls on a quest to find boys to take them to prom gradually realize they have feelings for one another.
A teen gets a chance to live a school year all over again.
A boy struggles with his belief that any bad thing he imagines will come to pass.
A lifeguard saves the life of a celebrity’s child.
A girl’s science fair project yields results that attract the government’s attention.
A girl finds her dead mother’s teenage diary and sets out to do some of the things her mother wanted to do as a teen, but never did.
A boy lacking in natural athletic ability is nonetheless determined to make the team.
A girl on a school trip realizes she looks exactly like a girl in a Renaissance painting, and soon after, she discovers why.
A girl who wants to be a virgin until she gets married faces social pressure about her decision.
Soon after a boy was born, his father went missing. Now, a skeleton has been discovered in the basement of their former home.
A teen attempts to make his whole fractious extended family get along and have a nice Christmas for once in their lives.
A girl discovers a secret passageway in one of the office buildings she cleans at night, but nobody else seems to be able to access it.
A teen copes with both a hopeless crush on his best friend’s older sister and a younger girl’s crush on him.
A teen goes to extraordinary lengths to attempt to cheer up her grieving friend.
Much to both of their families’ dismay, two teens with different faiths fall in love.
A teen attempts to throw a truly memorable graduation party.
A city kid deals with a move to a tiny farming community.
A teen’s older sister’s wedding rekindles old family feuds.
A boy’s random acts of kindness prove contagious and lead to surprising results.
A girl whose mother is a hoarder attempts to have a normal life.
Two boys discover treasure in a local cave.
A girl makes a wish at 11:11 every day, but what she wishes for changes dramatically over time.
A boy chafes against his overachieving parents’ plans for him: Ivy League school, then medical school or law school.
A plan to put a bully in his place goes too far.
A girl who’s a high school bully tries to reform and make amends.
A boy becomes part of a test group for an experimental drug.
A girl supports her boyfriend as he deals with a serious illness. Unfortunately, he’s not a good guy and treats her badly.
Two families hiding from a repressive government live in a submarine.
A girl dreads spending the summer with her grandparents…but it turns out to be the best summer of her life so far.
An intense online friendship changes when both teens wind up attending the same high school.
A boy makes a friend in a foreign country.
Two teens fall in love at a church summer camp...and months later, they can’t get over it.
On a hunting trip, a boy mistakes a person for a deer.
A girl believes her mother’s death was no accident.
A boy enters an alternate universe in search of his father.
A teenaged prince’s advisors attempt to use him for their own political and financial gain.
In a matriarchal realm, a girl becomes queen at the age of seventeen and is courted by two princes from neighboring realms.
An Amish girl considers whether to leave the Amish community behind.
A girl runs away from home, intending to live with her bohemian aunt.
A teen has difficulties passing his driver’s license test for a very peculiar reason.
A boy’s image and attitude change after his uncle dies and leaves him a luxury sports car.
At a funeral, two teens become infatuated with one another—and they arrange to meet at other funerals where neither of them knows the deceased.
Three very different brothers, growing up poor, learn to overcome their differences and rely on one another.
A girl has too many responsibilities at home, including caring for her younger siblings, because her parents are drunk and/or frequently absent.
An unpopular girl becomes famous for an act of bravery.
A boy becomes part of one of the least dangerous gangs ever.
A boy tries to escape the shadow of his more accomplished and more handsome older brother.
A group of teens become acquainted at writer meetups when they all participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), in which people attempt to complete 50,000 words of a novel in November.
In the 1980s, a girl creates a mixtape that expresses her feelings and what’s happening in her life.
She says yes to being a boy’s girlfriend, even though she’s not interested in him, because she’s never had a boyfriend before. She soon has regrets.
An eccentric new teacher brings inspiration to students at a high school.
A girl returns to school after a lengthy stay in a psychiatric ward.
A boy struggles with the decision to go away to a college on a full ride scholarship or to stay close to his family and his girlfriend by attending the far less prestigious university in his hometown.
Two friends decide to participate in a talent show. It goes horribly.
A girl risks helping a family escape an increasingly dangerous country.
Teens construct a subversive float for the homecoming parade.
A teenager makes friends with an aristocratic boy his own age—who happens to be a ghost.
A girl learns more about herself as she visits several different prospective colleges.
A boy buys a very expensive gift for his crush, who has no romantic interest in him whatsoever.
A girl’s parents are nonconformists who are suspicious of authority. She rebels by joining a conservative political group.
A boy’s social media addiction leads to insomnia and problems at school.
A boy plays a cruel joke on an awkward girl by pretending to want to go to a dance with her.
A girl discovers an unorthodox way to overcome her social anxiety.
At a concert, a boy freezes up after a girl asks for his name and number. Later, he tries to find her again.
A driven, ambitious teen is embarrassed and occasionally undermined by his laid-back, unconventional parents.
A girl falls in love with her best friend, and when she confesses her feelings the friend doesn’t feel the same way and ends the friendship.
Two high school enemies wake up to find they’ve switched bodies.
A girl is hired for a babysitting job that’s way beyond what she can handle.
Two teens who can’t stand one another pretend to date in order to reach their individual goals.
After his mom dies, a boy goes to live with his great-aunt on a reservation.
A teen starts a side business out of her bedroom.
A boy posts hateful comments on an Internet message board daily under a fake name. Then someone reveals his true identity.
Two boys learn they’re the descendants and heirs of King Arthur and Merlin, respectively.
A girl winds up with a pet llama, but she’s keeping it a secret from her parents.
A teen takes on more responsibilities when his parent goes off to war.
A high school sports rivalry leads to a tragedy—and a mystery.
A summer camp has a sinister secret.
A former prison has been converted into a high school, but echoes of its past remain.
Two best friends set out to see the northern lights.
A girl tries to live a normal life despite dealing with a rare disease or condition.
A teen’s new friend is a charismatic daredevil who leads him into adventures and trouble.
A teen strikes up an unlikely friendship with an elderly new neighbor.
A boy takes swim lessons for the first time as a teenager and falls in love with his instructor.
A teen is part of a group taken hostage at a church.
The son of the President comes of age in a world of Secret Service agents and vicious media headlines.
A teenager and his family become homeless after his father loses his job.
A teenage boy lives at the motel or hotel owned by his parents.
An orphan isn’t sure if she can trust her new foster parents.
A teen learns that his father or mother is a superhero.
150 Historical Fiction Prompts
History is a bottomless well of inspiration for storytellers. Novelists and screenwriters create fictionalized accounts of real people and events, or they use historical settings for original storylines. Fantasy writers frequently draw on historical eras and events as well.
Historical fiction requires a lot of intensive research, but some of the ideas here might inspire someone to learn and write about a particular topic or period. And of course, a writer wouldn’t need to have any special knowledge of history to use one of these prompts purely as a creative writing exercise.
I am always getting interested in random subjects on the Internet, and I started taking notes on some of them. These notes provided most of the items on this list. Some are true plot ideas, and some of them are historical facts that can provide either a creative jumping-off point or the setting for a story.